TTE Preview: Conference presentations

London – Among the highlights of the TTE conference will be a presentations covering a range of ‘big-ticket’ issues facing the tire manufacturing industry.

In the opening session, Michelin executive Pierre Fraisse will examine issues around the need to deliver resource savings alongside improved driving safety in the future.

These, often competing, requirements are among the biggest challenges facing tire makers, believes Michelin’s VP technical operations – passenger car and light truck tires.

In his presentation, Fraisse will set out how progress in these areas can be achieved through exploitation of the full potential of the tires – which is not totally used today – and a performance evaluation based on relevant usage conditions.

“The use of those two ingredients will drive the tire industry on a virtuous circle,” the Michelin vice president will suggest.

Bridgestone expert Dr Katsuhiko Tsunoda will present the progress of a company drive to develop resource-saving, lightweight tires using an innovative tough rubber compound.

Carried out as part of a Japanese-government backed R&D programme, the work has included multi-faceted analyses for fracture mechanisms to develop a new double-network, material design concept.

The impact of electric vehicles (EVs) on tires to 2028 is the topic of a presentation by Bruce Lambillotte, vice president, technical consulting at US-based Smithers Rapra.

Lambillotte will discuss how electric drivetrains will require adjustments in tire design to balance performance, safety and vehicle range. Areas covered will include material selection and tire engineering.

Regulatory developments around tire labelling and CO2 emissions will be the focus of Ricard Anadón, senior product manager, Idiada Automotive Technology SA.

Since 1 Jan, truck manufacturers have to calculate the CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new vehicles they produce for the EU market using the new Vehicle Energy Consumption Calculation Tool (VECTO).

Anadón will also examine proposed new EU regulations on the labelling of tires as well as a new European type-approval legislative framework.

The current standardised test procedures to determine tire rolling resistance allow a very accurate and comparable achievement of results under laboratory conditions.

However, according to Dr Christian Bachmann, senior manager tire technology at FKA, similar to fuel consumption tests of vehicles in the lab and on real roads; the tire test results differ from real usage on a road.

In his presentation, Bachmann will examine the issues and suggest adjustments to the actual test procedures to increase the information content and eventually achieve more realistic conclusions.

Other presentation papers to catch the eye on the TTE conference programme include:

New TCF dipping – a unique offer, Dr Thomas Kramer, head of expert reinforcements and skim compounds, Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH; and Dr Mustafa Yasin Sen, project leader, Kordsa Global

Industrialisation of formaldehyde-free dip system for textile cords, Delphine Fleury, material designer, Michelin; Quentin Faucret, Resicare initiative leader, Michelin

Plasma deposition as an alternative to RFL treatment, Dr Wilma Dierkes, associate professor, University of Twente

New insulation possibilities for energy-efficient tire presses, Tomasz Janiszewski, product manager, Continental – ContiTech

Mould, bladder, tooling and press management in smart manufacturing Industry 4.0, Jos Uijlenbroek, VP, FineLine Technologies, Data2

Use of IIoT for smarter extrusion machinery – an edge computing approach, Rajkumar RB, senior executive – machine development, MRF Ltd

New concept for an alternative silica/polymer coupling, Anke Blume, university professor, University of Twente.